Sunday, 28 April 2013

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,
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Today I'm still gonna talk about simple living. You know, many great people in the past have been wised enough to embrace this philosophy of living. Not just us. Not just in this century. Traditional Malays also embraced this type of living as reflected in the Malays' traditional houses.
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Our family is also slowly going in the same direction, spearheaded by my mom's desire to lead a simple life. And in order to achieve that, my mom has begun to reduce her book collection. From more than a thousand books, now she has only a couple of hundreds. And these will soon see new owners too. As our school has sent letters to ask for book donations for our library, my mom has decided to part with more of her books, which for me is very interesting read.
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One of those books is written by the Modern Chinese Philosopher, Lin Yu Tang, called "The Importance of Living". My mom has been packing and unpacking the book so many times, as if unable to part with it. It made me curious as to the content of the book, so I took a quick look and found it very interesting. The book was published in 1937 and surprisingly, it is still relevant today.
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One of the anecdotes which I find most interesting is the story about "The Travels Of Mingliaotse". Mingliaotse was a a court official who grew tired of his life and made the decision to find the truth about life by finding out about the principles of Tao. To do that, he left all the luxury in his life and started out as a vagabond.
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He said" Although I was at one time of my life an official, I had no property or wealth outside a few books. At first I travelled with these books, but fearing that they might be the cause of envy on the part of the water spirits, I threw them into the water. And now I haven't got a thing outside this body. Does not then, the charm of life remain for me long and lasting, when my burdens are gone, my surroundings are quiet, my body is free and my heart is leisurely? With a cassock and a gourd, I go wherever I like, stay wherever I choose and take whatever I get. Staying at a place, I do not inquire after its owner, and going away, I do not leave my name. I do not feel ill at ease when I am left in the cold, and do not become contaminated when I am in noisy company.
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...Thus for three years Mingliaotse continues in his travels, wandering almost over the entire world. Everything that he sees with his eyes or hears with his ears, or touches with his body, and all the different situations and meetings, are thus used for the benefit of training his mind. And so such vagabond travel is not entirely without its benefit.
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He then returns and builds himself a hut in the hills of Szeming and never leaves it again.
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Love and peace
Daniel Zaydi

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Assalamaualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,
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Hi everyone. Whatsup?I'm fine alhamdulillah. I didn't go to school yesterday coz I was soo tired after the prefect camp. Today, the extra class for PMR prep took only 20 minutes so, alhamdulillah again coz I'm really not into staying back late anymore.
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Last night I slept with my mom in her room while my lil sis slept with my dad downstairs coz we were afraid. You might wonder what we are afraid of. Well, we are afraid of the noises that happen in our house every night. Last night, it was not even 9pm, when both my sisters heard the sounds of a girl giggling near them while we were watching TV. You know, ever since the new owner of the next door house is busy renovating the house, all these noises have started to haunt us again.
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My mom talked to the next door maid about this just now, and the maid told her that the maid from the house behind ours also heard noises as if a bunch of family is talking or doing something in the vacant house. The maid thought my mom and us went into the house at nights. So ridiculous. Why would we want to enter the empty house at nights.
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When baby bro was alive, we also heard noises like little children (laughing and screaming) playing in the pool in the backyard of the house(the house behind us where the maid lives). It happened every night until 2 or 3 in the morning while the maid who lives next door heard sounds from OUR house, as if a party is going on.
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My parents have called some religious people to pray but since the renovation begins, all these noises have started again and we are really quite scared to go upstairs at night. My mom is also ill again. Sleeping all the time, as if she's too weak to wake up.
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The new owner is erecting a 6 foot brick fence around the perimeter of the house. I think it's good coz I don't want to see what happen in the house and I really hope whatever invisible creatures that are living there won't cross the fence and disturb us, coz my mom said, she's contemplating on moving out, after this second round of attacks from these ghosts.
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Maybe some of you do not believe this story, but for those who have encountered it and in the Quran, it is stated many times about the Jinns. Maybe we are the ones who have disturbed the Jinns' dwelling coz this place was a virgin forest once, maybe a million years old. So, I don't know, I pray to God to protect us coz thinking about it alone makes me sad, after what we went through when baby bro was alive.
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Love and peace
Daniel Zaydi

Sunday, 21 April 2013

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,
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I've forgotten to inform y'all that my Tok Ngah or rather, my dad's Mak Ngah whom we visited in Segamat has departed on Wednesday last week. My parents and lil sis went to pay their last respect. My big sis and I didn't go coz we've gone to school before we received the news. She had diabetes, high blood pressure, and finally her kidneys gave up on her. Her daughter didn't want to perform some medical procedure like dialysis or something coz she's already too weak. So, she died three days later.
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Let's pray that God has mercy on her soul and will reward her with Jannah. Al-Faatihah...Amin. My mom told me when we visited Tok Ngah the last time (when she was dying), she whispered in my Tok Ngah's ear to send her regards to my lil bro (if she sees him when she has passed on the other side), and my mom also recited the Syahadah in her ear.
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We also recited the Suratul Yaasin at her deathbed before leaving.
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I hope Tok Ngah will be reunited with her husband and all her family members in Barzakh.
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Life in this world is just a dream...Life after death is the reality.
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Love and peace
Daniel Zaydi

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,
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.S.M.I.L.E.
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That's an assignment for you and me....starting today!!!!!!
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And let's see what happen a week from now.
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Don't forget to SMILE, come rain or shine.
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May we have the most beautiful sun shiny smile in the whole wide world.....and no challenges will ever be too hard for us, coz we have the courage to SMILE...:))
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Love and peace
Daniel Zaydi

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,
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Hi everyone. Sorry for not posting anything new these last few days. My mom didn't pay the internet bill and it got suspended. I myself have gone to our school's two-day prefect programme at the Tanjung Bidara Beach Resort in Melaka.
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Guess what, I got selected as the most sporting participant at the end of the programme. He he, I couldn't believe my ears, coz I thought Lionel would get it. Anyway, thanx everyone. It was a blast and I'm sooo beat tired now, I'm thinking of not going to school tomorrow :)
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Well, gtg now. Maybe I'll tell you more about the programme later. But I didn't snap any pix, so if my BFF would share some of what he's taken using his DSLR, emm, that would be nice. Anyway, see you soon.
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Love and peace
Daniel Zaydi

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,
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Tonight is rainy night. It's not just any rain, it's raining sooo hard that my lil sis became frightened. Then the lightning bolt hit our house and it went pitch black. My mom was eating at that time while my lil sis was reading the quran. My lil sis jumped on me like a wild horse when the lightning struck coz she was so afraid of the dark and also coz she was scared of the lightning. My big sis was upstairs but she was as cool as a cucumber, just like my mom. My mom finally turned on the electricity again.
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Then she sat down with us and told us that's what will happen on our first night in the grave. The Mungkar and Nangkir angels who are assigned to interrogate every soul will come like a strike of lightning with a deafening booming sound, in the pitch black grave. My mom said all souls will experience it, including our lil baby bro. At first, after we are buried, the soil will embrace our souls like a mother's womb embracing her unborn baby until our rib cages crack, that it hurts so much. Then, the angels will come. The angels will ask us with their thundering voices, who or what is our God, and who is the messenger of God. The dead soul cannot lie at this point of time. Some will say that their God is money, some will say women, some will say fame or fortune, or whatnot. Only the believers can actually say that their God is Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of God. The angels will continue asking and torturing the souls if they give the wrong answer. I feel so sad thinking about baby bro in the grave right now. I hope God will be gentle with him coz he's just a little boy. Some people say my mom doesn't have to worry coz baby bro has no sin yet, but my mom said only God knows what happen to baby bro. We humans don't. That's why we have to always pray for little baby bro.
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It's still raining now albeit a little less. My dad who rides on his motorbike to work had to come home with his friend (tumpang kete kawan die le. susahnya nak tulih omputih nih) because the rain was sooo heavy just now. Don't you think it's ironic, coz the rain was like torture when it was heavy, but now it's like music to my ears when it's less severe.
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Talking about the rain, my mom said, Mekah experienced iced rain after the Jumaah prayer when she was there. One of her group members even took pix of the rain drops which were actually little pebble-like iced. My mom said, it was a blessed rain. However, my mom was ill at that time so she could not go to the Jumaah prayer and had to stay in the hotel. But when she had recovered, and was on the way to the mosque for Asr prayer, the rain came pouring down and it was so icy cold that my mom got the fever again when she reached the mosque. She said, the fever made her body ached soo bad that she cried like a little child in the Masjidil Haram.
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I wonder if it is also raining in your part of the world. Is it scary or nice? Does it bring back memory of loved ones long gone, or has any meaning whatsoever to you????
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Love and peace
Daniel Zaydi
p.s. My dad has told me to wake up super early tomorrow and go for a jog coz the weather would be super nice, the air foggy and clean and good for our lungs.

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,
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I saw many hits on my previous post titled "Delicious Malay Fried Chicken", so I'm going to give you another fried chicken recipe so that you may try it at home. I got it from this blog "Perniagaan Catering dan Restoran"(Catering and Restaurant Business) at balannambiar.wordpress.com.All credits must go to the writer of this blog.
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In this blog, he says that the most important aspect when deep frying chicken is the oil temperature which must be real hot and is the basis in deep frying.
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Tips for making Fried Chicken covered with bread crumbs
1. Firstly, mix buttermilk or condensed milk with 1 egg. Mix well. Then dip your chicken in the mixture.

2. Then, put bread crumb into a plastic bag and put the chicken in the bag and just make sure that all the chickens are covered in bread crumbs.

3. To get the best result, make sure you put the chicken which have been covered in bread crumbs in the freezer (leave the plastic bag guys) for 30 min-one hour befere deep frying it.
.If you want to make fried chicken covered in dry flour, you must prepare the dry flour first.

Friday, 5 April 2013

Assalamualaikum wbt and peace be upon you,
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I've decided to write a bit about our holiday activities. As y'll know, we were sent to Muar to stay with my dad's cousins during my parents' trip to Mekah. So, we had to spend a couple of nights at Mak Nojah's place, then at Uncle Budin's bungalow, then Uncle Nazri's cute little place and finally back at Mak Nojah's traditional abode.
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Uncle Nazri and Uncle Ajak even treated us to an excursion in Malacca where we spent sometime at the A Famosa Resort and later sightseeing at the Malacca historical town. We went to the Chinatown, Casa Del Rio Hotel and also checked out the fancy trishaws there.
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The weather in Muar was extremely warm during our stay that sometimes Uncle Nazri had to spray water on the tin roof, and pimples came out on my face like nobody's business. Well, maybe it's due to the hot and humid weather, but maybe also coz I've been staying up late having tea with my second cousins up to 2am, at the nearby food stall. Sometimes, Mak Nojah and her family would take us out to Beijing Cafe where it's open until the wee hours of the morning. But my sisters don't really fancy going there coz there's a lot of Mat Rempit (motorcycle guys) lepaking.
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Finally my parents arrived from Kuwait on April 1st. They got stranded in Kuwait becoz of the flight's technical problems so we went late to the airport to see them come home. We went by the van which Uncle Zahid had paid to pick them up. My parents however kept their car at my dad's friend parking lot near the airport.My mom has been having her fever and cold since and she's just recovering. She said, there were so many people there that it's almost like Haj time. My dad bought me a white jubah to be worn when praying. My sisters got abayas but the one my mom bought for my lil sis is a bit short coz my sis has shot up like a bamboo pole, so it's given to our cousin who came to visit.
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My Mak Long, Mak Itam and all her children came to visit us a few nights ago. And also to return my dad's vehicle which they used during my parents' leave. They went to Kedah for a wedding and later a tour within the country with the vehicle which can ferry many people and left their BMW with us. My dad gave the BMW to our neighbour to take care and use instead since they won't be around.
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My mom's friends have been coming during the day and night to visit my mom. My mom had to send some of them awy and promised to see them next week coz she's not really well and she's afraid that they might get infected. But some of them still came coz they were worried when they heard that my mom is ill. So they came with packed coconut water to heal the fever, some gave food so that my mom doesn't have to cook. Even before my mom left for Umrah, some of them gave food which my mom kept in the freezer, coz they know my mom would be tired when she arrived. So, for a couple of days since our parents came home from Mekah, we all ate frozen food given by neighbours which were heated up.
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Tomorrow is Saturday and we'll be leaving for the towns of Temerloh and Kuantan in the state of Pahang (the east coast) coz my dad has got invitations to his staff and his client's weddings. Later we'll move on to Raub maybe to taste the delicious Mee goreng Mamak from another of my dad's client's stall, before moving to Segamat to visit my dad's aunt who is quite ill at the moment before finally spending the night in Muar and coming back home on Sunday. My dad wants to meet up with his cousins in Muar becoz they took care of us and he has bought some souvenirs from Mekah to give them.
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Till then,
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Love and peace
Daniel Zaydi
Assalamualaikum wbt.
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Basically, I know what I'm doing right now. But, there's an UNANSWERABLE QUESTION that is playing in my head recently. Now, it's a different situation when I don't know what I want to do with my life. SubhanAllah.

The question is ... "What is the POINT of me living in this world?" AllahhuAkbar.

I'm totally sorry because i just left my 'unanswerable' question and I don't know what to write about it. I can't just simply write anything because I'm worried what my opinion about that 'unanswerable question is wrong. SubhanAllah. I'm really really sorry, guys.